Actress Lesley Joseph, 68, is best known for playing Dorien in sitcom Birds of a Feather. She compares her latest play to saucy seaside postcards.

What’s the musical Hot Flush about? It’s about four menopausal women and a man. It’s very funny. It’s a series of vignettes. It’s like watching a slightly risqué seaside postcard – a bit near the knuckle but very funny.

Is singing new for you? No, I’ve done musicals all my life. After drama school my first job was in a musical revue. I did two-and-a-half years in Annie playing Miss Hannigan. I’ve done musicals and I sing in pantomime. I don’t have the best voice but I can put over a song well. One of the best things I’ve done on stage is sing Easy Street in Annie. It builds up into the most hysterical dance break and we used to go off stage high as kites.

Have you had any onstage mishaps over the years? I was doing a one-woman show called Singular Women, which consisted of four separate monologues. The fourth was a vertically challenged person who was incredibly small. I was doing it at The Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh and dried. Nothing came into my head. I stood there for 30 seconds, stamped my feet waiting for inspiration, nothing happened, and after a minute I had to say the audience: ‘I have no clue what I’m doing here or what I say next.’ My legs started to shake because it was so scary. I had another one when I was playing the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella in Richmond. I came on dressed as the old hag for the transformation scene, threw off my cloak to reveal my Fairy Godmother outfit and threw the wig off with it. I didn’t realise I was there in a bald stocking cap and the audience became hysterical. I was playing opposite Michaela Strachan, who wet herself. I put my hand on my head, tried to put the wig back on, tried to stay in character and played the rest of the scene with the wig halfway over my face. Then the ponies came on and s*** all over the place. That’s one of the joys of live theatre – the audience see that performance, at that time, done for them. [Her phone rings.] ‘I’ll have to ring you back, I’m just doing an interview.’ [She hangs up.] That was Christopher Biggins. I’m so showbiz.

Are you happy with the reaction to the new Birds Of A Feather TV show? Thrilled. Before the current TV series, we did two theatre tours. We were nervous because we’d never done it on stage but we made sure we got the right script. TV companies came to see the first tour and the reaction was so fantastic they realised people still loved it. The BBC offered us a Christmas special and ITV offered us a series. We were nervous because it’s not an edgy sitcom and sitcoms have changed. Things like The Royle Family and The Office took sitcoms in an almost reality-type direction – so it was a very different style, you might call it slightly old fashioned. Mrs Brown’s Boys gave us hope – it maybe hasn’t been brilliantly critically acclaimed but it’s publically adored. I wouldn’t say we’re the same but it’s a similar humour in a way.

Why do you think it still works? Birds was always a family show – people who watch it now tell us they remember watching it with their parents and the theme tune takes them right back. Having people like Matt Willis and Charlie Quirke bring in a younger audience too so we’ve updated it and we’re all 15 years older. Linda [Robson] tweets; I don’t. She texted me and said: ‘We’re trending, we’re third in the world,’ which I find slightly hard to believe but if we were then OMG or LOL – I don’t do much text speak. We didn’t have Twitter first time when we were around but we got 27million viewers for one programme, which you don’t get now. What you do get now is an instant reaction. The show works and the audience is proof of that. We’re all thrilled and we were all very nervous about what reaction we’d receive.

Are you getting a second series? Phone calls have been made but things won’t be decided just yet. I don’t know how decisions are made now. When we first did Birds things were nurtured. One Foot In The Grave took two series to get off the ground – as did Only Fools And Horses, which is lauded as the most popular sitcom ever. In the old days, you would be allowed to build an audience until it took off and people aren’t prepared to do that now. You have to hit the ground running. We were given a helping hand because we weren’t so long ago that everyone had forgotten about us. Some really young people are watching it. We had people practically breastfeeding in the front row when we did the stage show.